manage your crappie

[Slab Slayen]

This may make sense to some of you and may just sound nuts to others...... I read somewhere once that if you keep the smaller crappie for the table and throw back the real nice ones that you will improve the average size of crappie in the lake. My openion on this is that it works. 3 years ago we fished a lake that was full of smaller crappie and i kept everything. we took a couple hundred small crappie that year. There wasent a 12 to 14 inch crappie to be found in that lake. the average size was around 7 inches. I went back to that lake this year and was catchen 14 inchers with a 12 inch average. I just wanna know some oppinions on this. I know what the facts are and im just wanten some feedback.

[jigflinger]

Some lakes it works. Some lakes it don't. Don't know why just does. I will say that if all that was removed was a couple hundred 7 inch fish that it probably didn't have a noticeable impact. One female crappie will lay many thousands of eggs, so 200 is insignificant to the overall population. Sounds like your body of water is in the upswing side of it's normal cycle. You are to be applauded for practicing some management practices. Keep it up. Can't do anything but help.
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[CrappiePappy]

That's one train of thought. But ... it does seem to run counter to how most F&W depts manage a species/fishery. Consider ... F&W depts set minimum size limits & daily limit numbers (on some lakes). If releasing the larger fish, and keeping the smaller ones was the best management practice ... wouldn't they be more likely to put a maximum size limit on the fish ?? Or possibly have a slot limit ??

It all boils down to the ability of the body of water to produce & sustain the population ... its size, depth, biomass, available foodsource, & stability (levels/temps/clarity).

Overpopulation creates stunted fish ... but, while they remain small, they still age. Once they get ~3yrs old, they're mature enough to spawn. Removal of any number of these fish, regardless of size, allows more space & food to be available to the remaining survivors ... provided the foodsource isn't compromised by uncontrollable conditions. So, taking out only small ones "can" allow some to grow to a larger size ... but, in the same vein, removal of keeper to Slab sized fish will create space & food availability for the remaining smaller fish to get larger.

There are so many factors involved in providing & sustaining a healthy population of fish, that no one set of rules will work in all cases. Crappie are prolific breeders, but still seem to go through cycles where there are a couple of years of sub-keeper sized fish ... followed by a year of Slabs. And that's on large bodies of water. Smaller bodies of water may take twice as long to cycle through to the boon year, if they ever do. The average lifespan of the fish, considering their location & lake size/condition, is another factor to consider. That's why I let the F&W guys set the rules, and I just abide by them.

... cp

[Catman767]

X2

Jim

[crappielimits]

8 to 10 inch crappie are the best spawners and growth rates vary. So I agree you had no impact. Crappie average 18 to 20 thosand eggs per female.

[NIMROD]

I totally disagree! It would take more than a couple hundred unless it is a very small pond. We catch thousands upon thousands here and yet we are still covered up with small fish? I wish the commission would relax the limits on fish under 10'' here to thin the Crappie out.

[HLLeonard]

We have a small lake in our community , around 175 acres I believe, and it seems to have an abundance of small crappie, its not unusual to catch a hundred fish or more in 5 or 6 hours without a nine inch fish in the bunch, don't know why its this way but it seemingly has been for a good many years... In the fall it isn't unusual to graph a good many bait balls with fish hanging around them so it does seem there is a good bit of food there... The only thing that seems to be a problem is the cover for them, it seems to be very limited when you get below 2 or 3 feet, don't know why that would affect the size of the fish... I have heard the game warden say folks should take all the fish they catch out of the lake, didn't say how you were going to get past him with a hundred crappie in your livewell though as it is subject to the state limit... I do keep several crappie a year from the lake but most folks don't want to clean 7 or 8 inch fish although they taste the same as the 14 inchers we would rather catch.

[eriksat1]

We have a lake by me I can catch all kinds of small ones in the summer, and never anything over 10". But come winter, ice fishing the lake I regularly catch crappie 12'-15" I guess the big ones hide real good in summer?